Flyover 50: Five Elms Capital Lists Fastest Growing Companies in the Midwest

This week, Five Elms Capital announced the winners of the Flyover 50, a list of the fastest-growing companies that originated in the flyover states.  Of the 50 companies, 11 reign from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska (a part of the country that is becoming known as Silicon Prairie).  

The Flyover 50 highlights companies in the middle of the country for potential employees and customers, according to Fred Coulson, managing partner of the private equity firm, Five Elms Capital.  These companies applied or were nominated to be considered for the Flyover 50.  The nominees were then ranked based on percentage of revenue growth.  

A big congratulations to the following Flyover 50 companies from Think Big Partners (list from Silicon Prairie News):

1. Appcore – Des Moines
2. Motivity Solutions – Denver, Colo.
3. Brightbox – Houston
4. InQuicker – Nashville, Tenn.
5. VeteranCorps – O'Fallon, Ill.
6. Mill Haven Foods – New Lisbon, Wis.
7. Kutenda – Denver
8. Twentyseven Global – Overland Park, Kan.
9. Dancin' Dogg Golf – Traverse City, Mich.
10. C&J Energy Services – Houston
11. Onsite Occupational Health & Safety – Princeton, Ind.
12. Marketplace Homes – Livonia, Mich.
13. BidPal – Indianapolis, Ind.
14. MentorMate – Minneapolis
15. ebQuickstart – Austin, Texas
16. TEKPROS – Plano, Texas
17. Catapult International – Lenexa, Kan.
18. Tarsus CFO Services – Kansas City, Mo.
19. Gorilla Commerce – Chicago
20. Abstrakt Marketing Group – St. Louis
21. Rise Interactive – Chicago
22. Great Northern Building Products – Louisville, Ky.
23. Red Arrow Labs – Milwaukee
24. Sun King Brewing Company – Indianapolis
25. Aspen Contracting – Lee’s Summit, Mo.
26. Justin's – Boulder, Colo.
27. LeanDog – Cleveland, Ohio
28. Viverae – Dallas
29. Eating Recovery Center – Denver
30. Enviro Clean Products & Services – Yukon, Okla.
31. The Grand River – Ann Arbor, Mich.
32. AXYS Industrial Solutions – Houston
33. Velociti – Kansas City, Kan.
34. The Whitestone Group – Columbus, Ohio
35. Bill Bartmann Enterprises – Tulsa, Okla.
36. The Nerdery – Minneapolis
37. MobileDemand – Hiawatha, Iowa
38. Structura – Austin, Texas
39. MMY Consulting – Indianapolis
40. FTS International – Fort Worth, Texas
41. mPay Gateway – Minneapolis
42. Sonic Equipment Company – Iola, Kan.
43. ITWC – Malcom, IA
44. Innovative-IDM – Carrollton, Texas
45. Pallas Partners – Louisville, Ky.
46. Genova Technologies – Cedar Rapids, Iowa
47. Kinnser Software – Austin, Texas
48. Proforma Promotionally Yours – Kansas City, Kan.
49. Search Influence – New Orleans
50. Sightline Health – Bellaire, Texas

What's next for the Flyover 50?  Each will be recognized at an awards ceremony at the Association for Corporate Growth's Mid-America Corporate Growth Conference today in Kansas City.  Congratulations, Flyover 50!

To learn more about the Flyover 50, please read the recent press release.

Flyover Funding: Why Midwest States are Neglected...and Why They Shouldn't Be

Flyover states.  Wikipedia defines them as the region of the United States between the East and West Coasts.  Flyover states, to many people, are the states that are passed over during transcontinental flights...AKA a part of the country that many Americans only view by air and never actually see in person at ground level.

But we think that people should start.

As a city that is smack-dab in the middle of two flyover states (Kansas and Missouri), we see the energy and growth that is emulating from the Midwest and South Central regions.  And those on the East and West coast should start paying attention-especially when it comes to job creation and entrepreneurship.

PricewaterhouseCoopers's MoneyTree Report of Q2 2011 was released not too long ago and revealed some very interesting statistics about new deals in the Midwest, and namely, in the state of Kansas.

KANSAS - SOUTH CENTRAL REGION
The South Central area alone (including Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana) generated eighteen fully-funded businesses with $26 million going toward these investments.  According to the MoneyTree Report, 15 of these new deals were made in Kansas.  Therefore, 83% of the leads from the South Central region came from the great state of Kansas.

MISSOURI - MIDWEST REGION
As part of the Midwest region (Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Western Pennsylvania), Missouri generated two new deals in Q2 of 2011 and helped to contribute to the 75 new deals that came out of the Midwest.  The Midwest also generated about $344 million in investments in Q2 of 2011.

Yes, we are proud of the 15 new Kansas deals as well as the 2 deals funded in Missouri.  But more importantly, we are proud of the 93 deals that were made in the Midwest and in the South Central of the United States.  But obviously, we need to put things in perspective.  When you compare these numbers to the rest of the country, the South Central region lands near the low-half of the funded pack while the Midwest lands in the upper-third.  Without a doubt, the most funded region is Silicon Valley, generating 319 new funded businesses in quarter two of 2011 alone.  Second in the running are the New England States which made119 new deals.  Toward the bottom of the totem pole lies the Sacramento and North California region (2 businesses funded), Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico (1 business funded) and Upstate New York (2 businesses funded).

When we take a step back and look at the numbers, we cannot help but be proud of the 15 new successful deals and the $26 million worth of investments in Kansas, not to mention the 75 new deals made in the Midwest.  And we are only anticipating these numbers to grow.  Afterall, Kansas City has been named the up-and-coming hub for information technology, the next great city for entrepreneurship and the new home of Google Fiber. So, investors, perhaps it's time to start paying a bit more attention to these two flyover states (a little thing we like to call "flyover funding").  We are anxious to see how much these numbers increase in 2012...and we bet you are, too.

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